What are long-lead items, and why are they ordered early?

Some items take longer to arrive than the job can wait for them, and those are the long-lead items. Custom joinery, a lift, a chair-lift and a switchboard built to order all fall into this group, so each one is ordered well before the work that needs it.

On an ordinary job, a late delivery pushes the finish date back. On a fixed school holiday window the finish date cannot move, so a late delivery can cost the whole handover.

The slowest items

Anything made to measure or made to order sits at the top of the list. Joinery has to be measured and drawn before it is made, and equipment like a lift is built to suit the building it goes into.

Imported products and items with a single supplier carry extra risk, because a delay at the source has no easy workaround. The list is settled when the scope is, well before the trades arrive.

Drawings and approvals

Made-to-measure items need shop drawings, and shop drawings need approval before anything is made. That approval time counts as part of the wait.

A colour or finish chosen late has the same effect, because the order cannot go in until the choice is made. Decisions that hold up an order are flagged early, so the client knows which ones the programme depends on. How school joinery is drawn, made and installed is covered in joinery in a school environment.

Holiday works

For a project inside a school holiday, the ordering happens before the break, along with the scoping and planning. Construction can then run straight through and hand back for the first day of the new term, as set out in how works are delivered in the school holidays for a Day 1, Term 1 handover.

Order dates in the programme

A good programme shows when each long-lead item has to be ordered, not only when it is installed. Working back from the install date gives the last day the item can be ordered and still arrive in time. What a construction programme should show covers the rest of what belongs in it.

Storage

An item that arrives early needs somewhere dry and secure to wait. On a tight school or council site with no spare room, deliveries are timed to land close to when they are needed, as covered in sites with no room for materials or plant.

Monument's holiday work

Monument delivered the Georges River College amenity and changeroom upgrades at Peakhurst and Penshurst over the end-of-year holidays. Both were scoped, procured and pre-planned before the break, and both were handed over on time, ready for Day 1, Term 1.

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